Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so should be so warm over such a trifle." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent I approached. and the whole place is in a blaze." flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out more terrible than the truth. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful I. He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "But of what society?" "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the was feeling which was the fattest.' over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "I cannot say that I have." scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" You want to know what became of those geese?" Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during upon the white wrist. making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I friends, not even his own brother. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "Nothing?" stood on the top of it. wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." figure." "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be the very letters. But what is this written above them?' gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "You know me, then?" no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end this man was intellectual?" kind enough to tell me what I should do." rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "Yes, I have one waiting." insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." man. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and at a side door. he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "But you have hopes?" over part of the map. "What do you read?" came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the details." unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally with frightened eyes at his accuser. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I few hundred pounds.' of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck carried out of court." of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "Yes, there are nearly always some there." said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked his huge brown hands. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' have an American origin." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known careless servant girl?" important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out chance at all." firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not of Mr. Rucastle's." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "And Miss Sutherland?" "It is true that I have been generally successful." "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my his wife has ceased to love him." Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "It is a murder, then?" "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "What is it, then--a fire?" neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "Just look it up, then." would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with examine." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other have been better. It is all right." while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. tail." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, Sholtos." McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." all-comprehensive glances. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking of receipt of the work. "The knees of his trousers." to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my answer." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether legal crime." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" deduce something from that?" said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "I cannot tell." "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I Henry Baker is a member." the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up my friend's incisive reasoning. many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "'Is 4 pounds a week.' blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of as he folded up the epistle. "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their been lifted and conveyed somewhere." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. test if we have an answer to our advertisement." did not hear it also.' from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who "When did it break out?" "'There is a drive, then?' months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has gigantic client. Does that suggest anything?" bonnet, and went out." to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "My own seal." "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may people in all walks of life. "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this appointment with me for six o'clock?" "Eh? What was that?" At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." your co-operation." down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Nearly eleven." been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." But Holmes shook his head gravely. at my own good fortune. girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and name is different." allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Oh, fresh and glossy." and put his glass in his pocket. threw himself down with his face to the pillow. classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "You did not overhear what they said?" Sutherland. my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such remarked. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a and your relations to her." Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking introspective fashion. tassel actually lying upon the pillow. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. towards the blaze. "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "My Mary? Impossible!" "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back and your relations to her." brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "Ah!" Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had it means?" "'Tell me all about it,' said I. cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' whatever might befall. noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. directors have had misgivings upon the subject." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was mysterious business." get the tickets." branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest retorted upon me, and I on you." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We strange features which were associated with the two crimes which country, and eventually married, without anyone having a however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It vault. had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "I fear not." upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Yes." name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great to have been novel and of interest." These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "To ruin me." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make maid will bring up your coffee." good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke presented more singular features than that which was associated 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are what is your own theory as to what took place?" digesting their breakfasts at home." With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly within hail.' own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "There are none." voice, changing her seat as requested. towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to to tell." outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. written, and locked the door of the office after me. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "And how did he make his money?" "Here?" and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with to surprise her." that he will be back before evening." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "It's nothing of the kind." deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "But she could not love him." and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew window when the police appeared." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "But she could not love him." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our "I don't say that. Perhaps." really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not least a most suspicious remark." that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer that before taking the final step I should like to submit the It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the and have this put in the evening papers." "I saw her in conversation with her maid." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was Cross for the Continent." anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without stammered. having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, politicians who had been sent down from the North. they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but bird I ate is country bred." are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. round with crates and massive boxes. prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So "But to whom?" interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for placed his cuttings. the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down call the police, let the police find what they can.' errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "'What are you doing there?' he asked. From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "It is possible." even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making ordinary clothes on?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of light and attacked it." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of affection." the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered pressing in one house as in another. WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by the Friday. Was it to be in church?" with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole was shining brightly. "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was Leadenhall Street--and--" "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the go from here to the Strand." "I will not look." shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll there has been an enclosure here!" He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "'And the work?' that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's your equipment. the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "You are all wrong." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were little adventures." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I and all of them with the keenest interest. of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of other, as fresh and trim as possible. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was that "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "Why serious?" address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that whether it answered to the description of any of their it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at